Is There In Truth No Beauty?
by epcot97
Summary: After a chance revelation that rocks his world, Chat impulsively demands Marinette be given a second chance with the Mouse Miraculous. As he begins training his friend to become part of the team, though, he discovers there's a high price to pay for keeping secrets from the ones you love. #multimouseweek2020
1. Squeaking By

**One: Squeaking By**

_A surprise revelation spurs Chat to convince Ladybug to give Marinette a second chance as Multimouse. _

* * *

The pain was intense, like nothing I had ever felt before in my life.

I had absolutely no control as the blast I'd absorbed threw me across the sky, ultimately smashing me through the glass-walled side of Montparnasse multiple stories above the ground. My muscles continued to spasm as I slid in an ungainly mass of tangled, twitching limbs on my back across the flooring of some office or another, all of my normal instincts trying, and failing, to protect me from the shards of glass raining down everywhere.

My feline body crashed through cubicle partition after partition, throwing office supplies into the air until I slammed, hard, into the far wall, finally arresting my motion and resulting in another wave of pain. The most movement I could muster was to squeeze my masked eyes shut against the vertigo, trying hard to ignore the intense stabs of pain from my right side as I tried to take a deep breath.

I added broken ribs to my list of injuries, and then decided to stop the inventory when I was wracked with a full-body cough that left blood on my paw.

Sagging against the textured carpet, I was vaguely aware of the office workers who'd appeared from the rabbit warren of cubicles I'd smashed through. It was a Tuesday after all, so why _wouldn't_ there be a crowd of workers? The realization civilians were in harm's way spurred a last jolt of adrenaline, and I managed to commandeer some modicum of control back over my feline body.

Using my tail for leverage, I pushed up into a crouch and ignored the warning stabs of pain from my side. My feline ears pivoted forward, for the akuma had honed in on my erstwhile landing spot. "Find a safe spot!" I cried, trying, and failing, to stifle another cough that produced more blood that I very ungentlemanly spat against the wall.

Surprisingly, I still had my baton, and as I lengthened it for battle, I could hear the office workers behind me evacuating. I tried to go into my partial crouch, but it was a bridge too far for my battered frame; something snapped in my leg, sending a new bolt of white hot pain through me. I crumpled there at the edge of the broken window, my damaged body no longer able to go on, Miraculous magic notwithstanding.

I had to have passed out, for when I regained some sense of who I was, Multimouse's deep blue eyes were there, and I could feel her hands beneath me. "Chat? Chat!" she cried, and I could see there were tears there, too. "Why? _Why_ did you do that?"

"It's… what I do," I said, unable to take more than a shallow breath.

"You stupid, silly, trying kitty," she admonished as she leaned down to me.

"Mon ami," I gasped. "Go… go get Ladybug."

"You need help!" she said as she struggled to get me up.

"Ladybug… says that… a lot," I wheezed as I tried to wave her off, but the most I could muster was waggling a claw. "I'll be… fine," I gasped again, and then tried to give her my most charming Chat smile. "Go. _Now_."

"But-"

"It's… okay," I said, my energy flagging. "Just need… to catch… my breath."

The last thing I saw before my world faded to black was a single gossamer tear as it slipped out of Multimouse's red-rimmed masked eye.

* * *

_**Seven Days Earlier**_

"Why is it any different?" I asked.

"It just… is," Ladybug replied.

I recrossed my arms and turned slightly against the wall I'd been leaning on, and knew my eyes were flashing with the anger I was trying to keep under wraps. Her eyes flicked to my traitorous tail, which was madly swishing back and forth, telegraphing to my partner my true feelings. "Then you should apply your Golden Rule equally, Milady," I said quietly. "Across the board."

"I can't," she said quickly. "We _need_ Viperion."

I laughed coldly. "Oh, I know _just_ how much 'we' need Viperion."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

Shaking my mane, I turned further away from her, hoping the blush on my cheeks was hidden by the darkness. "He looks at you the way I do, Milady." I tossed a look back at her. "The difference being you seem to have _accepted_ his advances."

"It's not like _that_!" she said.

"Right," I snarked. "Well, if we're keeping Viperion, _despite_ the fact that I'm not the only one who knows who he is _and_ his identity was blown years ago in front of Hawkmoth, then Marinette should get a second crack at holding the Mouse Miraculous." I looked up at the moonless sky. "Contrary to what you may be thinking, I am purrfectly capable of keeping secrets."

"Chat," Ladybug said, "it's far more complicated than that. You don't understand-"

I whirled on her, my tail snapping out as I did. "Is it?" I replied icily. "Enlighten me, Ladybug."

It was her turn to look away, and my night vision clearly highlighted how crimson her face had become.

"I'm not blind," I continued, "and you've told me nearly from the beginning there was someone else that had captured your heart. I was naive to assume it was just another civilian." I leaned back again, tail continuing to swish, and went in for the kill. "I've honored every rule or request you have made of me, followed your every direction without question. I've always been there, _always_ taken the hit to protect you, and then vaulted away with nothing more than _maybe_ a smile and brief conversation to sustain me. I accepted it, embraced it even."

I looked back at my partner, who'd gone white. "I think you can spot me a solid, Milady. Give Marinette another chance."

"Chat… I had no idea…"

I looked away, not wanting to relitigate my ongoing feelings for her between us; nor did I want to revisit that moment a few hours earlier when I'd found her and Viperion passionately kissing behind the half wall on our rooftop meeting place. My feline ears had refused to comprehend what I was hearing before I landed on the half wall, surprising all three of us. I'd been hurt beyond words, and had blundered away from the rooftop in a confused whorl of emotions that had propelled me around Paris until I'd exhausted my soul.

In a cosmic irony, Ladybug had finally caught up with me on the same rooftop where I'd warned her about playing with my emotions many, many years earlier. We'd been barely been teenagers then; now, at nineteen, I was ashamed that I was feeling fourteen all over again. Our positions had changed somewhat since then; she was now Guardian of the Miraculous with all that entailed.

I was still the indispensable - and apparently disposable - Chat Noir.

In an ill-advised attempt to calm me down, Ladybug had explained she and Luka had been dating as civilians for some time; that had sent me into orbit again, discovering the one thing she'd steadfastly said was unsharable had, in fact, been shared with someone _else_ first. My anger - and no small amount of angst at the final extinguishing of the flame I'd carried for Ladybug - had led to my spontaneous demand that Marinette get a second chance. I'm not sure exactly why, but it seemed to offend my sense of fairness that she'd been cashed out after one mistake. And at that moment, I was wanting very badly to re-align the scales of justice.

"You owe me this much," I said tightly. "And as Guardian, it's well within your purview to grant it."

The silence stretched between us for a minute, then two. I continued to glare at her, my masked eyes firmly planted on those bedeviling blue ones I'd fallen for years ago.

"All right," she said once the silence between us had become oppressive. "She'll have to agree to it, though. I'll go to her-"

"No," I said firmly. "I'll be the one to go to her. If she says no, I want to be the one to hear it, not from a third party I'm currently experiencing some trust issues with."

Ladybug stepped back as if I'd slapped her, and perhaps I had, verbally. "This is out of character for you, kitty."

"I've not been a kitty for some time now, LB," I said coldly. "And as it appears you've turned a page on our relationship, so have I."

Ladybug pressed her lips together. "Fine," she said as she pulled out her yo-yo and cracked it open. Reaching into her storage compartment, she pulled out an octagonal box and handed it to me. "Guard this-"

"I am well aware of the drill, Mil-Ladybug," I said as I took the box in a paw and set it inside the baton's storage area. "I'll text you if she declines."

"Chat-"

I turned and leapt away into the night, crossing the moonless sky as quickly as I could. Marinette was attending the same University as I was, though her dorm was nowhere close to mine. I'd convinced Father to pay for a single, allowing me to come and go as Chat Noir undetected; Marinette was sharing with Alya, despite the fact they were in two different degree programs (Fashion for Marinette and Journalism for Alya). I knew the way well, for Marinette was a good friend - both to Chat _and_ Adrien. I wasn't able to visit her as regularly as Chat now that we were both at University; what nights I wasn't battling Hawkmoth with Ladybug were spent catching up on classwork. As Adrien, I made a point of connecting with her in what classes we had in common, and every few weekends when the entire gang from Dupont - me, her, Nino and Alya - got together, though admittedly those were becoming rarer and rarer as our lives got busier.

Her room was in an older set of buildings, ones that had classic balconies that a feline was capable of perching upon. I alighted on a particular one sixteen stories up and waved a paw at Alya, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Smiling, she stood and slid open the balcony door. "Hey Chat. It's been a while since you've graced us with your presence."

"Alya," I smiled, trying to batten down the last of the anger that had fueled my flight over. "It has, hasn't it? But, alas, a feline hero's schedule is not his own."

My friend laughed. "Ditto for an undergraduate."

"Is Mari around?"

"She stepped out several hours ago," she said, and a slight frown appeared. "I thought she'd be back by now, actually."

"Oh," I said. "Do you mind-" I started, before my feline ears pivoted forward.

The door to the dorm room unlocked and Marinette appeared; she was carrying a grocery bag and when she looked up, I could see her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying. I slipped off the balcony and was immediately by her side. "Princess," I said, using my longstanding nickname for her, "what's wrong?"

"Allergies," she said quickly as she looked away and shrugged out from my paw.

"It's that time of year," Alya said, but the look she shot me confirmed how dubious she thought the excuse was, too.

"Why are you here?" Marinette said abruptly as she dumped the groceries on the small kitchenette's counter.

My feline ears shot up. "I… wondered if I could speak to you for a few minutes," I said, looking back at Alya.

"I'm kinda busy tonight," she said tersely. "Maybe some other time?"

I felt my ears brush backwards at the rebuff. "Uh, of course," I said. "I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"And call ahead next time," she added as I moved toward the balcony.

I'd coiled up and hit the railing and was preparing to leap into the night when she called me back. "Hang on, Chat."

Pivoting on my three-point stance, I looked at her as she approached. "What did you want to say?" she asked.

"It's kind of sensitive," I replied, my masked eyes flicking over her head to Alya. "Do you mind if we go somewhere?"

Marinette seemed to weigh something and then nodded. I slipped down and wrapped an arm around her, then used the baton to spring out into the night. I didn't go far - just to the bell tower atop the main administrative building, but a spot I knew from experience was quiet and undetectable from the ground.

Releasing her, I stepped back a bit and then cracked open my baton's storage area. Marinette's eyes widened when she recognized the octagonal box I retrieved. "Marinette, I had a long chat with Ladybug tonight. Specifically," I continued, seeing something flash across her face, "around offering you a second chance at being a Miraculous holder."

Marinette's eyes flicked from the box to my masked visage. "Why would you do that? And why me?"

I smiled a bit craftily. "I have my reasons for the first," I replied. "As to the second, I know you, Mari. Probably better than you realize. There isn't anyone in Paris with the heart, the raw compassion that you have to right the wrongs - to keep balance in all things." I looked away for a moment, thinking until recently that had described Ladybug. "It's a key part of being a holder, actually; and believe me, we need courageous souls such as yours on the team."

I looked back at her and partially held out the box. "Despite what you might see on Alya's blog, it's not a glamorous job, and the hours suck. But the work we do is so infinitely fulfilling, it more than pays back for all of the hardships we endure." I paused. "Well… most of them, anyway."

Marinette had an odd look on her face.

I fully extended my arms to her. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, this is the Miraculous of the Mouse-"

"Chat, wait."

Pausing, I arched a masked eyebrow.

"I appreciate what you think you are doing on my behalf," she said carefully. "And I'm honored that you think I am Miraculous material. But it's been years since my outing as Multimouse. It was a one time ask from Ladybug, and I'm not sure I'm up to the job."

I smiled at my friend. "I _know_ you are," I said, putting one paw on her shoulder. "And if you accept, I will be there by your side every step of the way. Just like I am with Ladybug."

She looked at me again. "I have obligations, Chat. I can't guarantee I'll be available or even reachable if you need me."

"I'm not asking you to be a permanent full-time member," I replied. "Just one that we can go to when we need some extra help."

Marinette looked away.

"You don't have to say yes," I said as I pulled back my arm. "At the very least, I wanted to give you the chance - the option - if you wanted it."

Sliding the baton open, I started to put the small box into my storage compartment when Marinette put a hand to my black-cladded wrist. I looked up.

"Yes," she said. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure?" I asked, trying to keep the cheer out of my voice. After the way the day had gone, even a small bit of joy would be welcome.

"Yes," she repeated. "I don't know how I'll do it, but I will."

I held the box back out to her. "If you accept this, you promise to use it for good, and to return it when asked."

Marinette took the box. "I will."

"Good," I smiled. "I'll take you back now, but we'll start your training tomorrow night."

"Chat, I don't think that's necessary," she started.

I wrapped an arm around her and prepared to leap over the edged. "It is," I smiled, and thought to myself, _more so I won't have to be with Ladybug on patrol tomorrow night_.

"If you think that's best," she said dubiously.

"I do," I smiled. "I do."


	2. Mousetrap

**Two: Mousetrap**

_On their first patrol together, Hawkmoth tricks Chat and Multimouse into a devious trap. _

* * *

I'd arranged with Marinette to meet her atop one of my favored spots overlooking the Seine. Since starting at University, I'd originally thought it was too far to go to my overlook of Notre Dame, but over time, I realized the trip across the city allowed me to clear my mind and focus on the night's activities, whether that was prepping for patrol with Ladybug or, like tonight, training one of our rotating temporary holders.

Since the near-disaster with Chloe a few years back, we'd turned over most of our original secondary team members in keeping with Ladybug's Golden Rule. Viperion had been an exception, one that I more fully understood now that I knew about Ladybug's relationship with him. But to be honest, as we'd grown into our roles as Chat and Ladybug (and our burgeoning abilities), it was increasingly rare for us to call on our extended team.

Landing on the tile in a crouch, I popped open my baton and saw the mouse icon appear on the GPS tracker. As I expected, Marinette was running late, but given it was her first (well, technically, _second_) time out with Mullo, I figured I could cut her some slack. Twenty minutes later, though, I was beginning to think I needed to go after her when my feline hearing finally picked up the whisper of someone approaching.

Multimouse dropped onto the tile next to where I was standing, dressed in the same grey-and-pink costume I'd first seen her in years ago. "Chat," she said as she stood and re-wrapped her jump rope tale around her waist. "I'm sorry, it took longer than I expected to get here."

"Not a problem," I said. I caught myself smiling, for I was suddenly seeing the delicious irony that I, as a cat, had put myself into a position where I'd likely have to be defending a mouse. I was also finding some rather unsavory feline impulses were making themselves known.

"What's on our agenda for tonight?" she asked. "And how long do you think we'll be out?"

"Maybe an hour," I said, deciding that telling her I was fighting the urge to chase her around the rooftop might be a bit counterproductive. Taking a deep breath, I focused and continued. "I thought we'd do a mini patrol tonight, but mainly around some pretty safe areas of the city. I don't expect any trouble this evening, but I can't guarantee that Hawkmoth won't rear his ugly head." I leapt up to the railing, perching, and let my tail hang over the edge and twist playfully. "If he does, we'll call it a night and I'll connect with Ladybug."

"Makes sense," she nodded.

"Over the next couple of weeks, we'll extend the patrol until you and I take one night a week together."

She looked at me. "Without Ladybug?"

"She's… working with another new holder," I said. "They'll take an opposite night together, and LB and I will cover the rest."

"Okay," she said.

"Ready?"

She nodded and we were off. I charted an easy course over the rooftops, sticking to mostly jogging along the spines of the buildings in deference to the fact that Mouse wasn't quite up to speed on helicoptering with her jump rope. We made good time and arrived at the broad Trocadero plaza a bit faster than I'd expected. I landed in a crouch along one of the half walls, and Mouse did the same nearly in unison, almost as if she'd done it a million times before.

"Not bad," I said. "You learn fast."

"I… have a good teacher," Mouse smiled. Something caught her attention, though, and she twisted her head fast enough that the pink ribbons tying her two small buns in place shifted with movement. This close to her, I realized the buns looked a bit like mouse ears. "Do you smell that?" she asked.

I sniffed the air and sure enough, the faint scent of burning wood was in the air. "Yes," I said, turning back to her. "I didn't know you had an enhanced sense of smell, too."

"Neither did I," she laughed. "What do we do?"

"Investigate," I said.

"Shouldn't we call Ladybug?" she asked, eyes wide with concern.

"Not yet," I said, wrinkling my nose, for the smell had grown far stronger. "Come on!"

We leapt away from the wall and ran across the plaza toward a column of smoke; as we neared, I could see whatever was causing it was coming from the massive sewer running below the area. I wasn't unfamiliar with the space, for we'd been down there more times than I cared to admit. What made me slow down, though, was the fact that the massive rectangular sewer grate had been carefully propped open.

Knowing how heavy the wrought iron was gave me pause and I held out my arm to stop Mouse. "This is not good," I said as I dropped to a crouch, baton out. As I clicked over to the Cat Phone, I continued: "This has all the hallmarks of an akuma, and I'm not ready to have you face one yet. Let me get-"

"There's something down there," Mouse interrupted, her eyes narrowing as she sniffed the air. "I'm not sure, but I think I can hear it, too." She kept to all fours but started to move toward the grate. "Maybe we should take a peek-"

"Mouse!" I called after her. I tried to grab her tail but it whipped out of my paw as she scooted away from me. "What are you doing?" I hissed as I quickly stashed the baton and leapt toward her on all fours.

"Reconnaissance," she said. In a quick movement, she was over the edge and gone.

Swearing, I leapt to the edge and curled around it myself, landing below on the stone sidewalk running parallel to the phosphorescent water. Mouse was crouched next to a small bonfire exactly beneath the grate. "It's just wood," I said as I crouched beside her. "I'm not certain-"

With a slam, the massive grate above us dropped home.

I quickly vaulted up the ladder and pressed my shoulder against it, hoping to shove it open; instead, a massive jolt of energy shocked me, and I dropped to the stone walkway in a heap. Shaking my mane a bit to clear my fur brain, I more cautiously crept back up the ladder, and gently touched a claw tip to the metal grate.

A second, much stronger burst of energy jolted me, and it took a moment before I realized I was on my back again, looking up at the grate. Blinking, I could just make out a quasi glow surrounding the metalwork - something I'd missed in my hurry.

"Are you okay?" Mouse said as she helped me into a seated position. "Are you hurt?"

"Only my dignity," I smiled. "Somehow, it's been electrified. Like a cattle fence." I looked around us a bit more carefully.

I flipped into a crouch and watched as Mouse unwound her tail and spun it up into shield mode, then deftly angled it into the phosphorescent water below us to splash a wave of water onto the stonework to put out the fire. I was impressed that she'd already deduced how her tail could become a multi-function tool, and slightly stunned she'd pulled off such a complicated maneuver with as little experience as she had. "Mouse-"

"Sorry," she said as she re-wrapped her tail around her waist. "This is on me."

"I'm usually the curious one, Mouse," I said, smiling to lighten the mood. "But there are plenty of access hatches we _can_ get out. What worries me, though, is who wanted us to go through that particular one."

"You could just Cataclysm it," she offered.

"First lesson," I smiled. "We're still at the stage where we only get one shot at our superpower, though Ladybug thinks we're on the cusp of getting our full adult abilities. So for now, though, that means we are very judicious about _when_ we use it."

"Ah," she said, smiling back.

"Besides, now that you've dragged me down here, we might as well take a look." I paused, my feline hearing picking up a whisper coming at us from around the bend. "You heard what, exactly?"

"I don't know if I could quantify it," she said. "It sounded like a power surge."

My masked eyes widened. "Stick close," I commanded and then I leapt down the brick, and rounded the corner into a wider space that was a four-way junction point. The rapid current of the water clearly indicated which way the channel was designed to go, but my feline ears had picked up a faint hiss from the side corridor to our left.

Still on all fours, I trundled down the tunnel, the whispering hiss becoming more pronounced the deeper we went. We rounded yet another bend before skidding to a halt, for an electric-blue latticework of energy was criss-crossing the space, floor to ceiling, crackling with menace and blocking any further progress. While it wasn't the iron grate we'd seen earlier, I was reasonably certain touching _this_ barrier would have a similar, if not more egregious effect. Not wanting to be stung again, I put Mouse behind me and kept a healthy distance from the crackling barrier.

"Well, guess we won't use _that_ exit," I said, nodding to the ladder that was just beyond the barrier and equally beyond reach. "Come on," I said as we doubled back the way we came.

Back at the four-way intersection, we discovered a new barrier had appeared in front of the original corridor where we'd entered the sewer. It didn't take much of a leap to realize we were slowly being herded. In an effort to be thorough, though, we checked the third corridor and immediately came upon the third barrier, confirming my suspicion. We'd been effectively penned in.

The _who_ wasn't really in question, nor was the _why_. I was more concerned with the _how_, and the fact that Mouse was with me instead of Ladybug.

Without saying a word, I doubled back to the junction and paused at the edge of the phosphorescent water. "So much for investigating," I laughed, still striving to keep the mood light though I was getting a bit concerned. "As much as I hate water, let me take a quick swim to determine if we can get under those barriers. See if you can get through to Ladybug while I'm down there."

"On it," Mouse said, but put a hand to my arm. "But if those are electrified…"

"I'm betting the barriers are of the magical variety. We'd have to physically touch them to experience the… suggestion… that we not go in that direction." I glanced at the water. "It _shouldn't _shock me when I go under," I added, trying to sound more confident than I felt.

"Are you sure about that?"

"No," I said as I slid my baton out. "And if there's one thing I've learned from my years with Ladybug, it's to think through a problem," I said looking up at the pink-rimmed masked eyes of Multimouse. "Stand back, just in case I'm wrong," I continued as I carefully stepped to the edge and extended the baton to a point just above the surface of the water. Gently, I dipped the tip under the flow and smiled slightly when nothing happened.

"Good guess," Mouse said.

"And to think I just had a bath last month," I mewled as I shortened the baton. "I'm going in."

I triggered the rebreather on my baton and then, with a grimace, dove cleanly into the flowing water. As I suspected, the barriers went to the bottom; I searched fruitlessly for hidden drains but came up empty and said as much when I hauled myself back up on the ledge and stowed my baton.

"I'm not a huge fan of cages, but it's clear our akuma wants us to go down that corridor," I said. "Did you get through to Ladybug?"

"No," Mouse said as she clicked her phone shut. I smiled that it was part of the jump rope's handle, and wondered how much smaller her screen was than the tiny one on my baton.

"Not surprising," I said, trying to keep the tension out of my voice. "She doesn't hang around transformed like I do." I looked back at the entrance we'd come through. "Well," I said, "seems like you're getting more than you bargained for on your first night out."

"I can handle it," she said, with more confidence that I was feeling.

I looked at her thoughtfully. "Yes," I said, "I think you can. Come on, let's go meet our nemesis."


	3. Lab Rat

**Three: Lab Rat**

_Unable to reach Ladybug for backup, Chat and Multimouse are forced to work together to free themselves from Hawkmoth's akuma. _

* * *

A careful set of leaps from walkway to ceiling to walkway had us on the stonework in the corridor we'd been herded into; a few steps down the darkening tunnel, a final barrier crackled into existence directly behind us, preventing us from retracing our steps. I paused for a moment, then doubled back to confirm a suspicion: the other barriers had vanished.

"Intriguing," I said as I turned back to Mouse and walked a few more steps before stopping and leaning against the rockwork. I popped open my baton and tried Ladybug again, but it was becoming clear the two of us - Mouse and I - would need to get out of this on our own. "Okay, Mouse," I said. "Second and third lessons."

Multimouse raised her eyebrows and her beautiful blue eyes looked at me.

"Second: when an akuma expects you to zig, you zag," I smiled. "And third: we work as a team. Ladybug often has the master plan, but she occasionally asks for input," I added, realizing as I did so it wasn't just occasionally; more and more frequently, she'd actually been working up the plan of attack _with_ me. "So, Mouse, what do we know at this point?"

She smiled. "Are you seriously going to use this as a learning opportunity?"

"I like to think of it as 'on the job training,'" I replied.

Mouse rolled her eyes at me. "Well, we definitely don't want to go down this corridor."

"Exactly," I said. "What else?"

"We're not going to get backup any time soon."

"True. Anything else?"

She paused, then lit up. "Hawkmoth isn't expecting me," she said.

"Bingo!" I leaned down and said more quietly, "You're our ace in the hole."

Mouse started to say something but was interrupted when the barrier began to move toward us. "Looks like we're being encouraged to move," she said.

I nodded and the two of us loped down the stones, arriving at another larger area that forked. Neither appeared to be blocked, but the implication was clear: there were two corridors, and two of us.

"They want us to separate?" Mouse observed quietly.

"Yes," I replied.

"I wouldn't think that was a good idea."

"It's not," I confirmed. "What it also means, though, is that there's an implicit assumption we are capable of being handled individually; not, purrhaps, if we are tag teaming. We can use that."

I caught a smile on Mouse's face. "Good thinking, Chat."

"Time to zag," I whispered as I looked upward. While there were no apertures leading to our escape, there were several large utility pipes hugging the ceiling. Clearly Paris had tried to save money by re-using the existing underground space as more modern utilities had been added to the city. "How good is your night vision?"

"Really good," she said. "I see why you like it so much."

I did a double-take, for it was an odd comment coming from Marinette. "Did I-"

"Yes," she said, seeming to hear my confusion in my voice. "You've mentioned how handy it's been. And that Ladybug doesn't have it."

I couldn't remember such a conversation, but that didn't mean anything; in any event, I filed it away for later. Using a claw, I pointed to the arched ceiling. "It's dark enough up there, there's a chance our akuma might not see us."

"Won't it know we're up there?"

I turned back to her. "Maybe. Or they'll realize it's the only place we _could_ have gone. I don't quite know how it's tracking us, but either way it will give us a momentary advantage." I looked up at it again. "Can you hook it with your jump rope?"

Mouse chuckled as she started to unwind her tail.

"What?"

"Usually I'm the one-" she started, then caught herself. "What I mean is, I'm the one that was on the competitive jump rope team, right?"

"You were?" I asked. Somehow, I didn't know that about her.

"It was a long time ago, Chat," she said as she expertly twirled her rope and snagged a pipe. She effortlessly swung out over the phosphorescent water and curled around, disappearing into the darkness.

I leapt myself, and helicoptered up a bit more before snagging my claws on a pipe close to Mouse. I swung up and squeezed my feline form between the pipe and the ceiling, and turned slightly to see Mouse had done the same.

"What-?" she started.

I put a claw tip to my mouth and she stopped, and then we waited.

As I suspected, it wasn't long before a voice filtered up from below. "You can't hide forever," a feminine voice said. "There are only a handful of places for me to look."

I caught Multimouse looking at me and I shook my head, but couldn't help the grin that formed. For this close to the ceiling, my feline hearing picked up the faint but welcome noise of traffic just above us. As a plan started to form, our akuma continued to monologue, making the classic villain mistake.

"I just want to run a few tests," the voice continued. "They won't hurt. Much. But it's such a small price to pay for science, wouldn't you agree?"

I rolled my eyes, for this wasn't the first akuma who thought dissecting a Miraculous holder was a noble cause. I leaned as close as I could to Mouse and said just loud enough her enhanced hearing would pick it up. "Can you hear the traffic noise?"

"Yes," she replied after a moment.

"I'll shorten my list of tests, of course, if you hand over your jewels," the akuma continued. The voice had moved a bit closer.

"Can you trace it? Get to a point where it's the loudest?"

"Yes," she said, and I could see her smile in my night vision. "I understand," she nodded as she scurried down the pipe nearly noiselessly.

I went in the opposite direction and then dropped to the stonework below in a crouch. A tall woman in a white labcoat and holding a tablet was on the shore opposite. "Professor, if I give you my ring, will you let Ladybug go?" I asked, trying to sound desperate.

"No," the akuma said, smiling as she turned the tablet toward me.

I leapt sideways, narrowly avoiding a beam of energy that looked suspiciously like the ones the barrier had been constructed with, then clawed my way up the arching side of the corridor before vaulting across the water once more. "Not one for dealmaking, then, Doc," I chided. "That won't get you very far."

"I've got this grant nailed," she said, pausing for a moment. "And the early data I've gathered says you are very predictable."

"You're equating curiosity with predictability," I chided again. "That's a false equivalency."

"Ah, but you and Ladybug are here, aren't you?"

"Good point," I smiled from where I was crouched. I was reasonably certain the akuma was in the tablet, but also knew I needed to use Cataclysm to get Mouse out of here. Without actually having Ladybug, I wasn't going to get much by dissolving the tablet and releasing the akuma, so exiting seemed like the best strategy.

I started to coil up to vault back to Mouse when I heard a whisper for my feline ears only. "Chat… if you can hear me… I'm here. Cataclysm the akuma."

The akuma caught my dangerous smile; I wasn't sure how Ladybug had arrived, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I leapt into the air, raising my ring hand as I did so and cried, "Cataclysm!"

Soaring over the akuma, I angled slightly so I could tap the tablet and watched with satisfaction as it turned to dust; as I landed on the other side of her, I heard the _ziiing_ of the yo-yo and Ladybug's melodic voice purifying the butterfly. I hung close as the purple wave washed over the akuma victim, revealing, not surprisingly, a researcher in a white lab coat.

Ladybug dropped from the ceiling to stand beside me and I turned toward her as the akuma muttered to herself. "How-?"

"Multimouse used her secret superpower and managed to get through an air duct back there," she said, inclining her head toward the far end of the space. "I'll be honest, I was monitoring your progress tonight and when I saw your dots go underground, realized you might be in trouble. I wasn't far when she contacted me."

"You… were monitoring me?" I asked, a flash of anger in my eyes and the muttering akuma victim momentarily forgotten.

"Yes," she said.

"What, did you _really_ think I was going to take her directly into battle?"

"I know you, Chat," she said. "You run where angels fear to tread."

I sat back on my haunches. "Not as well as you think," I said tightly. "I'm not fourteen any more."

"And yet," she said, waving her gloved hands at the sewer, "here we are."

There was no way I was going to throw Marinette under the bus, so I swallowed my anger and nodded tightly. "I shall endeavor to continue to disappoint you, Ladybug," I said sarcastically. "You can take it from here," I added as I stood. "I'm going to see how Mouse is doing."

"I sent her home," Ladybug said, putting a hand to my arm. "Let her decompress. Alone."

I looked at her. "You didn't take the Miraculous from her, did you?"

"No," she replied. "Not yet."

"Then I will check in with her tomorrow."

"Chat-"

"Good evening, Ladybug," I said over my shoulder as I vaulted away from her and loped down the original tunnel, trying (and failing) to leave my anger behind.

As I located an accessway and leapt up to the open night, though, a little feline voice in the back of my fur brain was telling me I'd missed something there in the sewer. Something important. Curiosity was my main failing, being a cat and all, and I knew my subconscious was going to work on it like a knot in a ball of yarn.


	4. Mini Mouse

**Four: Mini Mouse**

_Curious at seeing some familiar traits in his mouse-themed trainee, Chat begins to dig and uncovers more questions than answers. _

* * *

I'd honored Ladybug's request and not gone to Marinette's, but had texted her to make sure she was fine, figuring I was within the spirit of the law. I'd just landed in the window of my dorm room when the baton chirped a response.

**_Mari:_**_ I'm fine. What a night._

**_CN:_**_ You did brilliantly, Purrincess. I'm quite proud of you._

**_Mari:_**_ I think you are a biased kitty, Chat._

**_CN:_**_ Yes. You want to take a day?_

**_Mari: _**_Do you mind? I should catch up on schoolwork. _

**_CN: _**_How about I catch you at the Gardens on Saturday?_

**_Mari:_**_ It's a deal._

Smiling, I slid the baton shut but remained perched on the windowsill; I, too, had homework to tackle, but unusually, little desire to do so. I dropped down into my dorm room and flopped onto the bed, still wrestling with what was bothering me. I couldn't quite put a claw to it, but after several minutes of staring at my life-sized poster of Ladybug, I realized I needed to go back down into the sewer.

Vaulting from the bed and through the still-open window, I soared back into the night, helicoptering to my first roof before running across the skyline of Paris and back to Trocadero. I landed once more on the same wall where we'd alighted hours earlier, and considered the space for a bit before locating the grate we'd entered.

Slipping down from the wall, I trotted across the massive quad that was empty as the midnight hour approached, then dropped to my crouch beside the grate. It looked innocuous enough, but just to be safe, I tapped it with the end of my baton to ensure it didn't have a nasty surprise. Realizing it was safe, I slid the baton into the grate and used it as a lever to pop the grate open once more, then quickly dropped back down into the sewer.

Retracing our steps, I found myself once more in the vaulted space with forked tunnels, and leapt back up to the utility pipes where we'd hidden. Slowly, I worked my way up and down every meter of the piping, but couldn't locate anything that was even _close_ to an air duct. My feline brain clicked in, reminding me I'd have been able to smell the change in the scent of the air while we'd been hidden.

I hadn't.

Covering the pipes a second time, I widened my search and continued down both forks as far as I thought Mouse might have been able to go in what I'd judged had been the short amount of time between our parting and my hearing Ladybug. I still couldn't locate even the smallest crack that might have led to the street above, nor any normal access points for that matter. Long past two in the morning, I hauled myself back out of the original grate and levered it closed, and was left with two indisputable facts.

_It was highly unlikely Mouse could have escaped._

_And there was absolutely no way Ladybug could have entered._

That led to a logical third fact that left me in my cat-crouch next to the grate, and the grim certainty that I'd need a bit more proof before I made my accusation.

The kwami gods decided to have it rain on Saturday; as I sat atop the five-star hotel just outside the flowering but drenched Buttes-Chaumont Park, I tried to ignore the rain as it pelted my costume. I'd slept very little since my nocturnal investigation, trying to decide how to proceed. Unfortunately, I'd only come up with a single plan to out the lie.

Multimouse appeared and landed next to me a few minutes later. "Hey Chat," she smiled.

"Mouse," I said. "Welcome back."

She caught my tone. "Is something wrong?"

"No," I replied, trying to smile. "I've had… a lot on my plate this week," I added. "And I've not been sleeping very good."

"That's awful!" She said. "Do you want to cancel for today?"

"No," I said. "I'll catch a catnap when we're done."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Okay, so today I thought we'd try out your superpower," I continued smoothly, watching Mouse's face. "You've not had a chance to use it yet, so-"

"Well, that's not quite right," she interrupted. "I've used it already."

"Oh," I said, trying for perplexed as I put a claw to my chin. "Right - my bad. When we fought Kwamibuster."

"Silly kitty," she said. "The sewer gas must have gotten to your fur brain. That's how I escaped to get Ladybug, remember?"

I had to admit, she was good. Nothing on her beautiful face betrayed her; not even a slight tensing around the eyes. She was far better at lying than I was, but given the secrets she held, I really shouldn't have been surprised. I'd have to look elsewhere for my conclusive proof.

"I must be more tired than I realized." I shook the rain out of my unruly hair. "Maybe you don't need the practice, then."

"No, it's a good idea," she said. "It's been a while - I need to get the hang of it."

We spent the morning together in a corner of the deserted gardens playing a modified version of Capture the Flag. The rain had worked in our favor, giving us more or less free reign over the grounds. I'd hidden a dozen small bouquets of roses throughout the park, and the goal was for her to get past me to collect all of them. My heart wasn't in it, though, and only put up a cursory defense. A fraction before the noon hour, I watched as she recombined all of her mini-mice back into a single Mouse for the third and final time.

"Not bad," I said, infusing it with as much charm as I could. "You're a pro with that."

"Thanks," she said as her Miraculous started chirping. "I should probably go," she added. "I'm out of food for Mullo."

"No problem," I said. "Let's meet up again tomorrow afternoon?"

"Uh… sure, I guess I can do that."

I watched as she leapt out into the afternoon and back toward University; she had no reason to mask her path from me, since I knew her alter ego. The irony wasn't lost on me at all.

Waiting a few minutes, I trailed her back across the city toward the University. I was on autopilot and paid little heed to where I was going until my feline ears caught a familiar voice.

"Chat!"

My attention shifted and I saw Alya in the sidewalk, under an umbrella. Using the baton, I descended toward her and landed gently in front of her. "Well, if it isn't the Ladyblogger," I smirked as I leaned on my baton. "Twice in the same week, no less. Looking for an exclusive?"

"Yeah," she laughed. "Who's your new partner?"

I kept my smile. "I only have one. You know that."

"I've got photos," she said sweetly but her smile told me she thought she had a juicy story. "Would you like to comment before I post?"

Suddenly world weary, I sighed and extended my baton. "See you around," I said as I rose into the air.

"Can I quote you?"

"Absolutely."


	5. Say Cheese

**Five: Say Cheese**

_Enroute to a photo shoot, Chat detours to the Bakery and finds out more than he actually wanted to know about Marinette's personal life._

* * *

I didn't sleep at all that evening and was out of my dorm room at first light, more to try and clear my mind than the actual need to be at the park by the Dupain-Cheng Bakery for an early morning photo shoot. As much as I detested modeling, it paid the bills for my college experience and would continue to be something I'd do for Father after graduation. Like it or not, he'd made me the face of the company; sooner or later, though, I'd turn that to my advantage.

I was due to meet Multimouse at lunch, so I had plenty of time for the shoot. What I didn't expect was seeing Marinette on the rooftop patio of the Bakery. Swinging around, I landed on her railing knowing I had a few minutes before I'd be missed at hair and makeup.

"Princess," I said with a smile. "Home for the weekend?"

"Yeah," she smiled as she leaned against the railing next to me. "I decided I wanted some home cooking."

"I don't blame you," I said but in truth I had no idea what that might be. My meals had been prepared by a professional chef growing up, and Father had insisted on continuing to cater my life at school. It wouldn't do for me to put on the traditional Freshman Fifteen, not with the swimsuit catalog just around the corner.

"You caught me getting some fresh air," she continued and I nodded but found myself distracted. My enhanced feline hearing was capable of picking up the sounds of her heart, likely since the cat is normally a predator; typically, it was just comfortable background noise for me, but Marinette's pulse had been steadily increasing the longer I was there.

As she kept chatting, I tuned her out and instead turned my full battery of enhanced senses on her. A slight flush graced her cheeks, and her hands were white knuckled where they gripped the wrought iron. Every so often, too, she was glancing to the skylight.

I twisted my feline ears and listened; faint chords of an acoustic guitar were there, floating up from her bedroom. It was a slow but happy melody, almost the very expression of bliss if musical notes were capable of connoting such emotions. Actually, in the hands of the master who was picking them down there in that bedroom, I knew they were _exactly_ that. Every note was a meaningful portrait of someone who was deeply in love with their soulmate.

It seemed as though my suspicions were correct, but my heart steadfastly refused to accept the connection. Yet there it seemed to be, plain as day.

My eyes were still on Marinette, who had ratcheted up the sheer volume of words as her nervousness threatened to overwhelm her; I kept my expression of rapt interest upon my face, years of modelling allowing me to emote on command. But my heart broke a second time at the thought I had missed out on love twice now. Not only had I'd missed my target, I'd never realized Ladybug had been with me day in and day out from the very beginning.

Someone else, though, had seen all of her qualities in the civilian form of the person I called a friend. And if I were being honest, I knew she was happy. My blindness - and my anger at being blind, I suppose - gave me no right to disrupt her life. I'd have to live with my mistake and take what little pleasure could be found in knowing _she_ had found a soulmate.

It just wasn't me.

"...and we're going to get some coffee afterwards." Marinette looked at me expectantly, having finally run out of steam.

"I'd love to join you," I replied, unsure if that was the correct response. "But I've got something this morning. And you know what? Let's forget about our meet up later. Enjoy your Sunday."

Marinette looked nonplussed. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "I have a feline you don't really need much more anyway," I added, choosing in that moment a way forward with my partner and my friend.

Marinette shook her head. "Maybe not the training part," she replied, looking thoughtful, "but I could use another patrol round. How about that instead?"

"All right," I nodded. "Meet me at the Eiffel Tower around nineteen hundred."

"It's a date," she smiled.

_I wish_, I thought. "Until then, Princess," I saluted as I fell back off the wrought iron and into the morning sun.

The photo shoot went poorly, for I had trouble focusing on the explicit directions I was given. For once, my years of being in front of the camera failed me; internally, I felt like I had no emotions at all - and that wasn't what we were trying to sell that day. Maybe that wasn't entirely accurate, as I _was_ feeling something, just not anything I wanted captured on film.

By lunch time, the director of the shoot was angry enough at how little useful imagery he'd obtained that he tried to insist that the crew and I remain for the afternoon. For the first time in my career, I was disinclined to acquiesce to his request and simply walked off the set, out of the park and down the street, still wearing both the clothes and makeup for the final shot we'd tried. Studiously avoiding the Bakery, I continued along the avenue until it broadened out into a more major thoroughfare, and considered how I wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon.

One choice wasn't difficult; several blocks past the Bakery, I found a quiet alley and transformed. Instead of using my baton and easily rising to the rooftops of Paris, I jumped up against the brick siding of the building and relished in driving my claws into the stone as I quickly pulled my lithe feline body up and out of the darkness that also felt like it was metaphorically enveloping me. I had long known the benefits of physical activity, especially when your emotions are a wild mess; fencing and other sports had served me well until the Cat Miraculous had come along and provided the ability to leap over cross streets and run full-tilt across the slanted tile roofs of old Paris.

I tried to give myself over to the activity, allowing the muscle memory to propel me through the bright blue sky, but I quickly realized I was running (literally) on fumes - an observation bolstered by a massive rumble from my stomach. Dropping out of the sky and onto a pebbled rooftop, I skidded to a halt and did a quick vault to perch atop the decorative railing rimming the space.

There had been a time when I'd been able to present myself at the Bakery and get a meal or at least a baked good or two; Marinette had taken to calling me her stray kitty and had genuinely enjoyed plying me with her latest masterpieces. And I'd been all too willing to happily be experimented upon; I was beyond excited just to have someone I could call a friend, even if it meant eating endless amounts of misshapen macaroons or deflated souffles. I'd loved every minute of it.

And, now I realized belatedly, I'd loved her, too. How had I missed that?

While there was a huge disparity between the personalities of Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste, there was actually little daylight between both halves of my partner. I'd been so focused on wooing Ladybug, I'd overlooked her right in front of me. My tail twisted behind me, angst personified, while my stomach rumbled again in protest at being ignored.

Sniffing the air, I thought I could pick up the scent of grilled onions and sausage coming from the general direction of Trocadero a few kilometers west of my position. There was a street vendor who worked the weekend crowds in that space, one who had no problem serving one of the Heroes of Paris. I leapt away and, perhaps propelled by hunger, made good time crossing the city before dropping into a nook on the far side of one of the massive buildings ringing the terraces. It took ten seconds to detransform long enough to shake a few Euros loose from my civilian wallet, and then I vaulted out into the space to find my vendor.

Multimouse found me a few hours later right where I'd eaten my half-dozen sausauge-and-onion pita wraps with all the trimmings; I was leaning against a side beam, claws laced behind my head as I watched the sun slowly sink into the horizon. I heard her long before she rose up along the tower, using her jump rope much like her yo-yo to hook various beams to reach me.

Another sign that I should have seen, purrhaps.

"Chat," she smiled as she landed next to me. "What a beautiful sunset," she said.

"We've enjoyed a few from here, haven't we?" I replied innocently.

"We have, haven't we," she smiled as she turned to watch the final rays disappear.

As the stars started to twinkle against the inky blackness of the night sky, I found myself slowly nodding. For I had never been up there with Marinette. Ever. It was the final confirmation, I suppose; the last push of the dagger into my heart.

Right up to the hilt.

I pushed myself up and smiled as warmly as I could manage. "Shall we, Mouse?" I asked, holding out my paw.

"Absolutely," she laughed. "I hope it stays this quiet."

"The night is still young."


	6. Chat & Mouse

**Six: Chat & Mouse**

_Certain now that Multimouse is also Ladybug, Chat is torn on whether he should try to make the case they are purrfect together - or if he should finally let her go._

* * *

One day short of a week from when I'd made my case to Ladybug for giving, essentially, herself a second run at being Multimouse, I was an emotional and physical wreck. I'd not slept in days, wracked with a bout of insomnia stemming from my discovery of who Ladybug really was - and what to do about it.

_Did_ I want to do anything about it in the first place? That was kind of the crux of the problem, really, for it felt a little late for me to try and purrsuade her that I was her furever soulmate. Old snake eyes seemed to have the inside track.

When I wasn't lying in my dorm room, staring at the ceiling, I'd been out and about restlessly roaming the skies of Paris at all hours. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure when I'd last been detransformed. It might have mid-day Sunday, right after I'd walked off the set; all I knew was that I had no desire to be Adrien. Chat Noir had long offered me an escape from the life Adrien had been constricted by, anyway, and it wasn't like detransforming would make the hurt go away. It was semantics, since Chat _was_ Adrien, but I felt like hiding behind the mask all the same. Sooner or later I'd need to release Plagg, though something told me he'd not lend much of a supportive shoulder for me to cry upon.

Then again, wily black cats weren't _supposed_ to cry, were they?

I had classes I _should_ have attended that Monday, but for the first time in my academic career I took a mental health day and skipped out into the early morning sunshine. Around lunch time my baton buzzed and I cracked it open long enough to ensure it wasn't an akuma before starting to chase a flock of pigeons that I'd found atop a deserted warehouse at the edge of Paris. Allergies be damned, it was enormously satisfying to see them scatter into the sky, panicked by the human-sized feline coming after them.

The fifth time my baton buzzed, I figured I'd need to answer it before it brought the wrath of Ladybug down upon my unruly feline mane. Popping it open, Multimouse appeared. Arching a masked eyebrow, I said simply: "Mouse."

"Where are you, Chat?"

"Use your tracker," I said wearily.

She frowned. "What's wrong, Chat? You're not yourself."

I looked away for a moment, having forgotten that LB shared many of the same empathetic tendencies. And in my heart I knew I wasn't being very subtle. She'd have to be blind not to realize something was bugging me (pun intended). "Nothing. It was just a long weekend and an even longer Monday."

"Do you want to meet up still?" she asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

I sighed and looked at the display more carefully. It was about the time we'd agreed on, though I was a bit shocked that the whole day had essentially disappeared. "Yeah. I'll meet you at our spot."

"Chat—"

"See you in a few." I snapped the baton shut with Mouse in mid-squeak and then slid it into it's spot on the small of my back. Honestly, I wasn't in much of a hurry to meet up with her; despite having roamed the city for nearly twenty hours straight, I still had no idea what I was going to say. So I took the exceedingly long way to what had once been my favorite rooftop, the one where I'd attempted to woo Ladybug with roses and candles.

Ladybug - rather, Multimouse - was casually leaning against the railing when I landed in a crouch behind her. Not intending to stay long, I kept my baton in one paw. "Good evening, Mouse," I purred, not above a little acting to try and cover my real emotions. "I think this will be the final training run for you," I continued, my masked eyes connecting with hers as she turned with a smile at my arrival.

"Only a week?" she said as her smile faltered and surprise drew her masked eyebrows upward. "Surely you give your new team members more training than that."

_Don't call me Shirley,_ I thought to myself, smiling inwardly at the old joke I had used many times on Ladybug. I also recognized what she was trying to do, having picked up on my sourpuss mood earlier. "You're a natural," I said, still staying in my crouch. "I can't see how I can do much more at this point."

"You surprise me, Chat," she smiled as she stepped closer, twirling her tail much like I would when I was being snarky with Ladybug. "I assumed you'd test me or something."

Something about her cavalier attitude irritated me. Maybe, if I'd not known about her dual identity as Ladybug it wouldn't have affected me; instead, I could feel a bit of a dangerous edge developing, made worse perhaps due to my standing as the black cat of destruction.

"I didn't think that was necessary," I replied, then narrowed my masked eyes at her. "But now that you bring it up," I continued, a wicked plan beginning to form in my feline brain. "There is one last… trial, shall we say, that seems appropriate."

"Indeed?" Catching the tonal change in my voice, Mouse's eyes widened but she held her ground. "What did you have in mind?" she asked.

"A little game, I think," I said as I flipped forward, but stayed on all fours as I approached and then curled around her, my tail gently sliding across her hips as I circled. Slowly I stood up and leaned a little toward her, letting the full force of my feline purrsonality out as I continued: "You might know of it."

"Really," she said, a slight mock to her voice. Mouse continued to smile, seemingly unable - or unwilling - to perceive the threat I was becoming. "And what would that be?"

I trailed a claw tip along her shoulder. "It's called Chat and Mouse," I replied, and then I leaned close to her ear and added with a low whisper, "and you have about five seconds to try and escape."

Her eyes widened further as she registered the danger for the first time. "Chat," she said, deliberately stepping away from me and slightly crouching. "What are you doing?"

"Four… three…" I counted on my paw, lowering each claw tip as I ticked down. "Two… one."

With a growl, I launched myself at her. She was ready and leapt away, but I could also tell she was hampered by the different characteristics of her current Miraculous. Where normally she'd lasso an antenna and sail away, she instead had to make a run for the next rooftop while she hastily unfastened her jump rope belt.

Like the giant feline I was, I let her get a bit ahead of me only to baton myself into an arc that landed me just in front of where she'd vaulted. We stood facing each other for a breath or two, each calculating the next move of the other, before she tried to flip over me. I leapt up and caught a boot, twisted, and landed both of us on the roof, hard; she threw me off of her and rolled away, cursing cats in general and me in particular as she vaulted.

"That's not very _lady_like, Mouse," I laughed cruelly from where I'd wound up.

She replied by cursing again, loudly, and tensing once more.

Flipping up, I snapped my baton in half and started to crouch when Mouse wrapped several lengths of her jump rope around my torso. Cinching it tight, she quickly pulled again and sent me to the roof, knocking the wind out of me.

"What the hell is this?" she fairly yelled. "Some kind of _game _to you?"

I waited a moment before forcefully rolling sideways, pulling the jump rope out of her hands with the unexpected move. Flexing to release the bands, I double flipped to a nearby pony wall and perched. "You _asked_ for a test," I reminded her.

"I'm your partner, dammit!" she yelled again as she scrambled over the tile toward her jump rope.

"_Ladybug_ is my partner," I growled. "You're good, Mouse, but you're _not_ her."

As I expected, the comment irked her. I leapt sideways, narrowly avoiding the embrace of the jump rope again, but wasn't as lucky on a second leap; midway though my arc, Mouse dropped any pretence and leaned into her full complement of Ladybug skills, easily snagging me with another loop of her jump rope and yanked me out of the air, crashing me back to the tile like a feline yo-yo. Dazed slightly by the force of the impact, it took a fraction of a second for me to try and leap upward and away.

It was enough of a delay that Mouse easily landed on my back, crushing me against the tile hard enough that I saw stars and fringes of black in my feline vision. By the time I'd recovered what wits I had left, she'd managed to truss me rather snugly from torso to boots with a jump rope that seemed to have magically lengthened to accommodate the job. Chin against the cold tile, I wriggled slightly and discovered I was essentially a Chatapiller.

Rolling me over with her foot, she slid up onto the pony wall and considered me. As I redoubled my struggles against the rope, Mouse smiled grimly and yanked on the free end in her hand; the resulting squeeze took my breath away and stilled my movements for the moment. Unwittingly or not, she telegraphed that Cataclysm was likely the only way I'd be able to break the bindings this time.

Still, given my mood and my feline ego, I tried a few more times to roll away from her or flex my way out of the trap; Mouse simply sat and waited for me, slowly tightening the rope each time to gently but rather firmly remind me who was in charge. At length, I was only able to twist around enough to half-lean against the base of the pony wall facing away from her. If she'd thought restricting my movements would calm me down, it actually had the opposite effect, for I'd never really gotten over my fear of confinement, either. And now I was utterly furious that I'd clearly lost control.

Of everything.

"Ready to talk?" Mouse asked quietly.

"About _what_?" I replied tersely.

"This is not you, Chat," she pointed out. "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing," I growled as I tried to flex again. The jump rope felt like it had become metal bands, nearly impossible for me to break. She'd also cleverly wound it so I couldn't get a paw to my baton, nor use a claw to shred, despite my best efforts.

"Chat," she said as she jumped down and sat beside me on the tile. "It's me under here - Marinette. You've never had trouble telling me what you're feeling."

I looked at her. She wasn't wrong, but of course that was before I'd known I was pouring my heart out to Ladybug without realizing it. All these years, I'd been telling my best friend how much I'd been in love with her. I'm not sure if it hurt more now, knowing she'd been acting like she was caring while hiding the fact that she didn't.

Maybe that wasn't fair, but given my current position, it felt like the truth.

As I sat there, fuming, I decided I had nothing to lose at this point and went for blunt honesty. "I love you," I said hotly. "And I always have."

Mouse sat back. "You don't love _me_," she said, laughing nervously. "You love Ladybug."

"I do," I said. "And I know you're her."

That got a satisfactory response from her as those masked blue eyes widened. Still, she decided to play the game a bit longer. "I don't know what's gotten into you, Chat, but you're scratching the wrong post."

I looked away. "You want to know why I'm angry? Exactly why? Try finding out your dreams have been crushed, and then a few days later, discover your _friend_, the one to whom you've confided all of those hopes and dreams to, happens to be the _same _person."

"Chat, at the risk of quoting Chloe Bourgeois, this is ridiculous. I'm just simple Marinette-"

I turned back to her. "Stop. Just stop!" I said forcefully, my ears semi-flattened. "I know you never left the sewer to get Ladybug. You didn't have to, since you were already there."

Mouse stared at me, slack jawed, and I sort of understood what she was going through. In a fraction of a moment, I'd unmasked her; I could see a slight trace of fear in those deep blue eyes I had fallen for all those years earlier. I'd not thought through what the revelation would mean for us - for _me_, and found a part of me curious to see how she was going to handle it. It seemed karmic, in a way.

She'd blown up my universe, now I was returning the favor.

Still, there was no mistaking the small trace of satisfaction in my voice as I leaned my head back against the stonework of the pony wall and closed my masked eyes. "I actually don't care anymore. All these secrets have ever done is hurt the people we love." I paused, then added: "Regardless of how you feel about me, I'll keep your secret. Along with all of the others I've held for this long."

Mouse remained silent for a long stretch; my feline hearing heard her heart was racing, but she was deliberately taking calming breaths. Finally, she asked softly: "Why didn't you say anything?"

Blowing away a bang, I sighed deeply. "How can you ask me that? I've been pretty consistent from the beginning." I tilted my mane a bit toward her. "As were you. I assumed - incorrectly - that I'd be able to change your mind. I didn't realize until I found you with 'Rion I'd lost a long time ago."

"I told you there was someone else," she said quietly. "I never lied."

"I never said you did," I replied.

She put a hand on my shoulder. "But I also never thought you'd hold out like you did."

"Seriously?" I rolled my eyes as I angrily shrugged out from beneath her touch - a tough task given how she'd trussed me up like a holiday turkey. "The roses? The puns? The endless innuendo? What did you _think_ I was doing?"

"Being Chat," she said, smiling weakly. "Honestly, I never thought you were serious."

_Ouch._

"Even after all my visits to you as Marinette?" I said incredulously. "All those nights I shared my kitty heartache? Were you just humoring me all this time?"

"That's not entirely fair, Chat. There were bigger issues! How could I say anything?"

"You could have hinted," I said hotly.

"Yeah," she conceded. "That's probably true - I'm sorry. I could never find the right way to say anything about, well, _any_ of it. And to be honest, I really didn't understand the depth of your feelings for me. For Ladybug."

"Clearly," I said, leaning my head back again against the wall.

We sat together like that, such as it is, for some time; I studiously avoided looking at her, choosing to watch the stars that had finally appeared and were softly, sublimely even, twinkling against the wider darkness of the galaxy. It was peaceful, and as I sat there, seeing those tiny fiery jewels blazing an unimaginably far distance away, found myself wishing to be somewhere out there. Away from the hurt, the craziness of secret identities and love polygons that defied description.

Anywhere but there on that rooftop with the girl I knew I'd loved. No - that wasn't quite right. Would _still_ love.

I closed my masked eyes and slowly started to bang my mane against the brick. How much _did_ I love her? Based on the hurt that just didn't want to quit, a fair amount. In a moment of harsh clarity, though, that old line from a classic movie appeared in my thoughts, and I knew an instant it was true.

_I love her enough that I can let her go._

Perspective. As blinded by my pain as I'd been, I had been missing that. Sorely.

"I want you to be happy," I said quietly, my masked eyes still closed. "That's all that matters to me, Milady." Blowing my breath out, I opened my masked eyes and turned toward her, my anger finally burned to ashes. "If it's with Luka, so be it."

Multimouse nodded.

"I will always love you," I continued, my eyes blurring a bit as my heart realized just how final this was becoming. "I can't help what my heart feels. But I'll respect your decision." I took a deep breath before continuing. "I'll adjust to our new reality, Ladybug, but it will take me some time. I hope you can understand that."

"I'll try," she said softly. "But we have the larger problem that you know my identity now." Mouse paused. "That means there's at least two people in Paris now who know my secret identity."

My anger appeared again. "You're not _actually_ saying that you don't trust me with that knowledge, are you?"

I searched her eyes and found the answer.

"Wow," I said, my masked eyes narrowing. "I thought we were partners. That it went without saying I had your back. Always."

"It's not that, Chat-"

"This just gets better and better," I said bitterly.

"Look, this is far more complicated than you realize," she tried again. "Listen to me for a moment."

"I'm done listening, bug," I said, my feline ears flattening once more. If she'd been paying attention, she would have recognized it for the sign it was.

"For crying out loud! Sometimes, I think that fur brain of yours-"

"Cataclysm!" I cried out suddenly, surprising Mouse.

My ring hand tingled with the power of destruction and I was just able to brush a claw tip against the band of the jump rope closest to my paw. I felt and then saw with some satisfaction Multimouse's main weapon dissolve into tiny flakes of ash that wafted away in the slight breeze of the evening. Standing up, I made a show of dusting off what was left of the ash from my costume before turning toward Mouse fully.

"I won't bother to reclaim your Miraculous to return to the Guardian," I said sarcastically. "I _trust_ you can see to that yourself."

"Chat-"

"Good evening, Mouse." I turned but paused when Multimouse put a hand on my shoulder.

"Chat! You can't leave like this - you're nearly a million-watt beacon for Hawkmoth to zero in on!"

I thought about that, but knew my anger was already subsiding once more, replaced by the nearly physical pain of having lost Ladybug. It smarted terribly, but it wasn't the first time I'd been hurt like that by any stretch, given how lovely my life under Father had been. Add to that the open wound that was the disappearance of my mother, and I felt pretty confident an akuma would have long ago found me if I'd been as emotionally weak as she was implying. Of course, Ladybug wouldn't know any of that, given how she'd never allowed me to reveal myself to her.

One more stake to the heart.

"I highly doubt that, Ladybug," I said curtly without turning around. "But if he does find me, you'll be the first to know."

I leapt away before I could hear her response.


	7. Year of the Rat

**Seven: Year of the Rat**

_A new akuma becomes the master of the rodents of Paris, with an unexpected complication for Multimouse. Chat makes a difficult decision to protect both his partner and Paris. _

* * *

Tuesday dawned cold, though my costume - like always - kept me toasty.

Despite having a single, I'd opted to spend the night curled up in a hidden nook just below Eiffel's apartment in the Tower instead of my dorm room. It wasn't the spot that Ladybug and I tended to use when we wanted a quiet moment to watch the city lights twinkle after a difficult akuma, but rather one higher and more private. I didn't often sleep transformed, but after parting ways with Ladybug-cum-Multimouse the prior evening and recharging Plagg, I'd pressed the tiny god into service once more, ignoring his already foul mood at having been stuck in the ring for more than a full day at that point. It hadn't been fair to my kwami, but I'd not been in a charitable mood other than to promise I'd make it up to him later.

While it was still early, I knew I was short on time to get across the city and back to campus in order to prepare for the day. I had fewer classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays - they were mostly labs, actually - but worse to miss than the lectures I'd cut on Monday. Yet, as I remained curled up into a feline ball watching the sun rise over the skyline of the city, I felt little motivation to return to University and face a certain pigtail-wearing co-ed who was in both of those sections.

Doing a quick calculation of where my GPA stood at that point in the semester, I decided a second mental health day was possible without inflicting significant damage and snuggled my mane below an arm to snooze a bit longer in the warm early morning sunshine. My dreams, however, were full of Ladybug, Marinette and Multimouse; over and over again, one or the other - or sometimes, all three - were in some sort of danger, but just out of reach of my paw and therefore my ability to save them. It was unsettling enough that I woke for good just as the sun was about halfway along it's arc over the city.

Stretching luxuriously in a way only possible while transformed, I tried to shelve the seeming warning the dreams had been but couldn't entirely; it was a side effect to sleeping as Chat, one that I'd experienced a few times before. Each time they had left me a bit on edge, making me wonder if Plagg was trying to subliminally remind me what my true purpose was as Chat.

"I hear you, Plagg," I said to the air as I stood and surveyed the city. "Just a bit longer, my little friend," I added, more to convince myself than the Kwami of Destruction.

I'd barely pulled out my baton to descend back to the streets of Paris when it suddenly chirped out the tri-tone akuma alert; my blood ran cold at the ominous timing. A few clicks on the small screen via claw and I had Nadjia's breathless coverage of a new akuma not more than a few blocks from me. Watching carefully I did a double take for I was reasonably certain the akuma was our frequent flyer Monsieur Ramier, though he didn't appear to be in his usual guise as Mister Pigeon. And were those… rats following him through the streets of Paris?

Not much surprised me any longer, but this did seem unusual even by Hawmoth's standards. Sighing, I swan dove off the tower and helicoptered toward what looked to be a long afternoon. So much for a mental health day. Making my way toward the akuma, I arrived on a building overlooking a broad plaza close to the tall and (in my opinion) somewhat inelegant Montparnasse.

Crouching to stay a bit hidden behind the pony wall at the edge of the roof, I watched in amazement as Ramier led a procession of hundreds of thousands of rodents down the wide avenue. It evoked a fairy tale from my youth, but seemed more like a horror movie than a cautionary story. As I cracked open my baton to see if my partner was close my masked eyes continued to scan the street.

I froze when a familiar pink-and-grey swatch of color caught my attention. Leaping off the roof, I dropped onto a light post to get closer; to my horror, Multimouse herself was marching along with her fellow rodents. Squinting, I could see she had something of a dazed look, almost trance-like with a half smile. There was no question in my feline brain now that this was some play on the classic fairy tale.

Turning, I quickly determined that Monsieur Ramier had swapped his typical pigeon whistle for something more along the lines of a piccolo, which was hanging around his neck on a lanyard. I had to assume that was where the akuma was, but with Ladybug essentially out of commission, it would do me no good to release it. That crystallized something of a plan to get Mouse out of harm's way so she could swap transformations. We'd have to deal with the _why_ she was Multimouse later, assuming she was still talking to me after my stunt with her yesterday.

Leaping off the crossarm of the lamppost, I idly wondered what had possessed Marinette to transform into Multimouse, for as far as I was concerned, our training runs (and the charade) were long over. Using Mullo and not Tikki was a mystery that bothered me, but not as much as what appeared to be her susceptibility to whatever tune Ramier had played. It made clear that much like catnip for me, being a mouse had wound up working against her, though I couldn't fathom how Hawkmoth would have known she'd have gotten swept up in this akuma's madness.

I tried hard to remember whether felines had followed the Pied Piper, knowing that there was a real chance I'd fall under Ramier's control if he realized what I was about. I grimly pushed myself to the limit to reach my partner, my only thought to spirit her away and hope time and distance would break whatever spell she was under.

Landing in a crouch in front of Multimouse, she put up no resistance as I wrapped one arm around her and started to trigger my baton with my free paw. One of those undefinable feline senses I had, though, kicked in, and pure instinct took drove me to leap sideways with Multimouse. A beam of blue-white energy sizzled through the space where we'd been standing, packing enough of a wallop that I could feel it slightly through the soles of my boots that were barely a meter from the discharge as we'd sailed away.

Curling around Mouse, we hit the pavement and rolled to a stop against a park bench with a resounding thud. I'd protected her with my bulk, but had taken the brunt of the impact and knew there would be a black-and-blue spot on my left shoulder blade in the morning. I had little time to catch my breath before I grabbed Mouse again and rolled sideways with her as another burst scorched the ground and eliminated the park bench in a massive _poof_ and a tiny cloud of smoke.

Realizing now that the piccolo was far more dangerous than it looked, I picked up Mouse in my arms and ran for cover, leaping, vaulting and zig-zagging across the increasingly chaotic landscape. Mouse had started to groan in my arms, telling me the force of our impact had snapped her out of the trance she'd been in.

"Chat?" she said as I vaulted left to avoid another shot. "Where am I?"

"Our honeymoon," I said, defaulting to my usual humor to lighten the moment. "I wish you'd picked someplace more exotic, Milady."

"You know I love complicated," she replied, and a part of me lifted at the double entendre.

"Why are you Multimouse?" I asked as I ducked left and into a side alley, where I was able to put her down.

"I was coming to find you," she said as we pressed ourselves to the brick. "I didn't like the way we left it yesterday."

I stared at her, narrowing my masked eyes in the process. "I'm not sure there's much more to say at this point," I said carefully. "Unless you're thinking of kicking me off the team now that I know your secret."

"Definitely not," she said. "I need you - I need my _partner_," she replied. "Regardless of what happened between us, there is only one mangy cat I want by my side."

"Mangy?" I arced a masked eyebrow. "I thought I was handsome. Debonair. Irrisis-"

"You're all of those things," Mouse smiled. "And my friend - my _best_ friend. That will never change."

I nodded, realizing I was now on the other side of the looking glass, given how, as Adrien, I'd frozen Marinette out for years. If only I had known I was looking past the very woman I was in love with. All of that time, lost.

"You don't need to pretend any longer," I said as I ducked around the corner and quickly pulled my feline ears back again, narrowly avoiding Ramier's increasingly accurate shots. It wasn't lost on me that he'd started back toward us, and the rodents had similarly begun to swarm in our direction. "Time to go, I think," I said as I leapt up to a fire escape and pulled myself over.

"It was symbolic," she said as we started to climb the side of the building. "I wanted to tell you what I just did - but it felt more 'right' coming from Mouse than Ladybug." She grunted as she leapt to the ledge beside me. "If that makes any sense."

"Sort of," I said as we pulled ourselves over the edge of the roof. The building we were on was across the street from Montparnasse, which was just as ugly as it had been a few minutes earlier. It didn't seem to make a difference that I was now seeing it from multiple stories in the air. I wondered once more why the city had allowed it to be built, for it in no way meshed with the more classical buildings surrounding it on all sides.

Turning toward Mouse, I started: "Can we talk about this later? I think-"

What happened next was a bit of a blur.

My masked feline eyes caught Ramier; I was less concerned about how he'd managed to levitate himself to our height than the piccolo that was trained in the direction of Multimouse. Operating on pure instinct, I threw my feline body in front of her but had no chance to spin up my baton into shield mode. The full force of the beam hit me, overwhelming my ability to do anything. My body was seized in the quasi-electrical current and went into sensory overload as I was forcefully tossed like a rag doll through the brick half-wall we'd been standing beside; about the only thing I felt was the odd angle my leg had been at as I continued through the air at a velocity I'd not thought possible.

I heard more than felt myself smash through the glass and steel of Monteparnasse, the cheery tinkle of shattering glass at odds with what was happening to me. Every inch of my body was on fire, a pain so intense that I felt myself nearly stop breathing in protest. Somehow, though, my suit had managed to protect me _enough_ that I was still alive. It seemed like a pyrrhic victory for I was reasonably sure a second blast, or even a third, if I was that lucky, wouldn't leave me in such fortunate circumstances.

My feline body crashed through cubicle partition after partition, throwing office supplies into the air until I slammed, hard, into the far wall, finally arresting my motion and resulting in another wave of pain. The most movement I could muster was to squeeze my masked eyes shut against the vertigo, trying hard to ignore the intense stabs of pain from my right side as I tried to take a deep breath.

I added broken ribs to my list of injuries, and then decided to stop the inventory when I was wracked with a full-body cough that left blood on my paw.

Sagging against the textured carpet, I was vaguely aware of the office workers who'd appeared from the rabbit warren of cubicles I'd smashed through. It was a Tuesday after all, so why _wouldn't_ there be a crowd of workers? The realization civilians were in harm's way spurred a last jolt of adrenaline, and I managed to commandeer some modicum of control back over my feline body.

Using my tail for leverage, I pushed up into a crouch and ignored the warning stabs of pain from my side. My feline ears pivoted forward, for the akuma had honed in on my erstwhile landing spot. "Find a safe spot!" I cried, trying, and failing, to stifle another cough that produced more blood that I very ungentlemanly spat against the wall.

Surprisingly, I still had my baton, and as I lengthened it for battle, I could hear the office workers behind me evacuating. I tried to go into my partial crouch, but it was a bridge too far for my battered frame; something snapped in my leg, sending a new bolt of white hot pain through me. I crumpled there at the edge of the broken window, my damaged body no longer able to go on, Miraculous magic notwithstanding.

I had to have passed out, for when I regained some sense of who I was, Multimouse's deep blue eyes were there, and I could feel her hands beneath me. "Chat? Chat!" she cried, and I could see there were tears there, too. "Why? _Why_ did you do that?"

"It's… what I do," I said, unable to take more than a shallow breath.

"You stupid, silly, trying kitty," she admonished as she leaned down to me.

"Mon ami," I gasped. "Go… go get Ladybug."

"You need help!" she said as she struggled to get me up.

"Ladybug… says that… a lot," I wheezed as I tried to wave her off, but the most I could muster was waggling a claw. "I'll be… fine," I gasped again, and then tried to give her my most charming Chat smile. "Go. _Now_."

"But-"

"It's… okay," I said, my energy flagging. "Just need… to catch… my breath."

The last thing I saw before my world faded to black was a single gossamer tear as it slipped out of Mouse's red-rimmed masked eye.

* * *

I have no idea how long I remained unconscious.

Floating up through the layers of cotton, the first thing I heard were voices. Arguing.

"Will it work?"

"I have no idea. No one has ever been this injured before."

"It has to!" a third voice said. "We can't exactly get him to a doctor."

"That's _exactly_ what we'll do if it doesn't work." That sounded a lot like Ladybug/Multimouse/Marinette and I felt myself smile.

"He's waking up!" that first voice said. "Hurry!"

There was a pause, and I heard a very familiar phrase. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

Despite having my masked eyes closed, the explosion of light filtered through them, followed swiftly by a body-wide tingle that ramped up in intensity. It didn't hurt, at least not entirely; compared to what I'd been through, it was more of a gentle tickle than anything else. What surprised me was how long the feeling lasted - far, far longer than any other time I'd seen Ladybug's Miraculous Cure in action.

That gave me pause. How badly _was_ I injured? Ladybug and I had discussed her Miracle Cure on those rare occasions when we'd hung out together. She'd never really had a chance to learn the full extent of her powers from Master Fu before he'd passed on the Miracle Box to Ladybug; the Grimoire had been lost during our battle against Miracle Queen, which might have provided some answers. Ladybug's faith that her Cure would do what was needed at just the right time made me hope she was right.

The light faded, and the pain from my ribs subsided. Carefully, I took a deep breath and found it didn't hurt - at least, not as badly as before. My masked eyes fluttered open, and ironically, the first person I saw was Viperion. "Dude," he said with a crooked smile. "Welcome back."

I felt myself smiling as I reached a paw out and let him pull me into a seated position. "I am quite grateful to be here," I replied. Looking around, I could see I was atop Le Grande Hotel Paris, a friendlier spot now that Chloe had moved to the United States to live with her mother. "How long-?"

"An hour, plus or minus," I heard as a hand rested gently on my shoulder. I turned to see Bunnix (younger version) wearing a gentle smile. "You really took quite a hit."

"The akuma!" I started, and tried to push myself off the bar they'd laid me upon. "We need-"

"Got it covered," Ladybug said as she appeared in front of me and gently pressed me back down. "Monsieur Ramier is at this very moment happily feeding pigeons once more along the canal."

"Without me?" I blurted.

"Not entirely," Viperion said. "Even unconscious, you proved to be quite the distraction. King Rat was so focused on getting your ring, he never saw Ladybug or the rest of us coming."

"It wasn't _quite_ that easy," Bunnix said.

"No," Ladybug added. "And then we brought you here."

I started to say something but felt a twinge in my leg; looking down, it appeared fine, but as I slid off the bar once more, I found I could only gingerly put my weight on it. "I'm still a bit tender, it seems," as I grimaced a bit. I looked up. "It's better than the alternative, though."

"I jump-started it, but your quick-healing ability will have to take it the rest of the way." Ladybug surprised me and leaned in for a kiss. Pulling away, she paused to whisper in my feline ear, "And I agree wholeheartedly, Chat. I can't imagine a life - or a world - without you."

"None of us can," Viperion added as he put a hand to my bicep.

His smile was genuine, and I had to admit, it made it hard to sustain my ire toward him. Despite everything, it was nice to count him among my inner circle. My flame of jealousy would remain for a bit - that much I knew for certain - but there wasn't anything quite like being surrounded by friends who understood what it was like to be a Hero of Paris.

"The good news is, I'm not planning on checking out any time soon," I laughed as I winked at Ladybug.

"Good," Bunnix said with a wider smile. It was hard to believe how Alix had grown into her Miraculous; it was easy to see in another year or two her becoming the future version we'd met some time back. "I've got to hop," she continued, more to Ladybug than me, and then in a whirl of blue and white, she was gone.

That left the three of us staring at each other; the joy we'd all shared at the success of the Miracle Cure became an uncomfortable silence. Deciding to make the first move, I broke the tension. "Look, 'Rion, Bug," I started. "I'm okay with everything."

"Everything?" Viperion cocked his head at me.

"Yeah," I said after a moment. "Yeah, I am. Like I told Ladybug, I just want her to be happy. If that's with you… well, I'll get used to it." I smiled and then narrowed my eyes at the snake-themed hero. "But if you break her heart, 'Rion, there's no place on this planet I won't go to track you down-"

"I think we get the point, Chat," Ladybug interrupted with a wry smile.

"Good," I said, then smiled at the obvious shock on Viperion's face.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked.

I leaned forward. "No."

"All right," he said leaning away from me slightly and laughing a bit nervously. "Message received."

"Good," I repeated before turning back to Ladybug and taking her hand in my paw. "Thanks for fixing me up," I said before kissing her knuckles and bowing as I normally did; some habits die hard. "But I must take my leave now, Milady."

"Hang on, kitty," she said before turning to her boyfriend. "Viperion, I'll meet up with you a bit later."

He nodded then looked at me for a moment before leaping away, leaving the two of us alone with each other once more. "Bug?" I prompted.

"I _do_ trust you with my secret," she said simply. "That was never in doubt. Ever. I just wanted you to know that."

I smiled as I pulled out my baton. "That means a lot to me, LB," I said. "To be honest, I've been kicking myself since I found out who was under that mask of yours."

Ladybug's face shifted. "Why?"

I smiled wider as I extended my baton and was on the cusp of telling her when I realized it might actually make a situation that was more-or-less on the mend another festering wound. Finding out her long time crush was in truth her feline partner in crime wasn't a discovery she needed to make, not when she'd finally connected with someone who, I had to admit, was a relatively good match for her. So I took a different tact.

"You remember when your father was akumatized? When I told you I couldn't love you, because my heart already belonged to Ladybug?"

"As Marinette?" She nodded slowly. "Yes," she replied. "That was a bit of a trip, being locked up in a vine castle reminiscent of _Beauty and the Beast_."

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Turns out, I was wrong. You were _already_ in my heart, I just didn't know it." I paused for a moment. "And will always be."

Ladybug caught my face as I pulled back and kissed me again. "I know, now," she said. "Better late than never, I suppose."

_That's debatable_, I thought. "Until the next akuma, Milady," I said, saluting as I leapt away into the late afternoon sunshine, leaving my complicated partner and our equally as complicated love behind.

Physically, I was a little sore, but overall felt more like myself than I had in a few hours. I hoped my heart was capable of the same sort of recovery, though as I soared over the familiar rooftops of Paris, I wasn't certain it would be as fast; even the Miraculous Cure would likely do me no good.

Could I love again? Maybe, in time. I had waited so long for Ladybug I had no idea if I'd be able to start all over again.

Or if I even wanted to.


End file.
